And so the NerdFest commenced...

As someone that works in politics, I will be the first to admit that those of us who devote our lives to the world of being a political staffer are nerds. Hard core nerds. Anyone that tells you otherwise is lying. You can't get that excited about looking at statistical information, policy papers, rural broadband summits, and about 122,231 other things that happen in the political realm without being a HUGE nerd. It's cool, I've come to grips with it. If you haven't you will soon.

Now what's also unique about the world of political staffers, is we can't ever leave work alone. When we're not at work (which for those of us on the campaign trail isn't often) we talk about politics. Non-stop. It's actually quite sicking, and we should seek help if we knew what was best for us. So it makes logical sense for us to gravitate towards things that are political. Books, TV shows, blogs, t-shirts, bobbleheads, whatever. If it has to do with anything political we'll throw or money and attention at it.

So someone along the way, who was probably a even bigger nerd than just your typical political junkie, decided to make a role-playing game based on the 2008 presidential election. The down loadable game is called "President Forever 2008 + Primaries". In a nutshell, you take the role of a campaign manager in October of 2007 for one of the 15 candidates who were running for US President and even some folks who were rumored to be running as well (i.e. Gore). So you pick a candidate, pick a platform, message, fundraise, create a field campaign strategy each week, and try and win the primary and general elections as you live your dream of being the next David Axelrod or Karl Rove. You can even create your own candidate which I get into later.

So imagine the nerds who play Final Fantasy and D&D combined with the nerds who are political junkies, and you'll get this guy. The nerd of all nerds. The nerd who wasn't content just being a rpg gamer, or a political junkie, but like an evil scientist, decided to combine the two in a fiendish plot to unleash the level of dorkness (if that's even a word) to an ungodly level. Slowly recruiting an army of unwilling dorks, geeks, and nerds, who will poison the world with unnecessary high levels of anti-social behavior.

Well one of those people who he recruited is myself. A career campaign staffer who once played Final Fantasy X for 14 hours a day, three days in a row. So in the months in between the Pittsburgh Mayoral primary and my current campaign, I discovered this game browsing the wonderful world of random Wikipedia articles. My reaction when finding out about the game? "That's f'n bad ass!" Pretty lame huh?

Anyway, so I downloaded the game and immediately called my friend Jake and the conversation went something like this:

Me: "Dude, there's this campaign simulation game I just found out about."
Jake: "Campaign simulation game? What's that?"
Me: "It's this game where you start out in October of '07, pick a candidate, and have to run their campaign. Like you create a media, field, and fundraising plan."
Jake: "Really? That sounds interesting."
Me: "Yeah, it's called President Forever 2008. You should check it out."
Jake: "OK, I will."

30 minutes later...

Me: "Hello."
Jake: "This game looks bad ass! We're playing this."

And so the NerdFest commenced...

So which brings us to this blog. What this blog will do is chronicle us playing the game and writing about the game like it's a real campaign. We are going to create Jed Bartlet, the President from NBC's West Wing series that ran in the first half of the decade, and keep him as close to the character that we can. So whatever happens in the game, polling data, news stories, where the candidates are each week, etc., will all be tracked in this blog. So the next post that will detail who we picked to run our "campaign jobs" and set the stage for what is coming next. After that point, it's going to be run like a real blog with guest writers, and political analysis.

Is it nerdy? Yes. But then again, we're bigger nerds than you.

Passions and stuff...

So I really hate talking about myself, and getting asked silly questions about what I'm passionate about. Let's be honest, no one really cares about what you're passionate about. People ask that question in either three settings: A writing assignment (like this), a job interview (and after making the 8 hour round tip to the District of Columbia for three separate interviews, only to come back empty handed, I'm kinda sick of interview-esque questions), or if someone is trying to get you into bed (which I can assure you happens once every five years for me).

With that said, I'll play along, just because...well, I don't want to fail this class.

Since my job entails me spending lots of time getting to know the gray highways of Western Pennsylvania, I've had lots of time to think about not only what I'm passionate about, but what would make someone not want to kill themselves; or in the very least, not feel like they wasted five minutes of their life.

So while traveling the dark, windy roads west of the Alleghenies; I thought about a lot of things I love to do or follow and came up with a decent sized list of passions. So we'll start at the top.

Politics are my number one passion, as I work for a Congressman who is trying to become a United States Senator. So logically that would be the first thing I could write about, right? Eh, maybe not. There's enough people talking about their love for change, helping people, the democratic process, blah, blah, blah... I'll let someone else tackle that topic. Plus, if I wrote about the specifics of my job, I'd get fired. Not something I'm looking for at the moment.

What else? Sports! Yeah, sports. I'm obsessed with sports. In my life I've played the following organized sports: Basketball, Track and Field, Hockey, and four different kinds of football - rugby, association (that's soccer to us Yanks), American, and Australian (go Squids!). So this is good, I can blog about sports. Sweet! But then I realized that like politics, sports are probably the most blogged about topic on the interwebs. So again, who cares about my experiences as a full-forward for a American Aussie Rules club? *Hint* The answer to that is found in the opening paragraph. And until I can find funding to create the North American Equestrian Water Polo League, I'll leave sports to someone else.

Hmm...I was in a bunch touring rock bands that was privileged to tour all over the US and Canada. But so were 90 per cent of my friends. Although I can guarantee that I was the only one of my friends (bandmates excluded) from a Pittsburgh band to tour Vermillion, South Dakota. Ever heard of it? Yeah, didn't think so. But everyone knows someone who was in a band that had similar experiences. So that idea is scratched.

Beer? If I was a frat boy or a bro, that would work, but I'm since I'm not, I'll let the experts take that one.

Bourbon or Port Wine? Not trying to show my snobby alcoholic ways quite yet.

Man, this is way tougher than I thought it was going to be. So as my depression was consuming me, it hit me. Just west of the thriving metropolis of Franklin, Pennsylvania. There is one thing that I can talk about that I'm passionate about that I can share with others, and in the process maybe help someone in the process. Now it's kinda gruesome, kinda violent, but this is America (FUCK YEAH!). Violence is American as apple pie.

Before I tell you what it is I want you to understand how this may change your life. Have you ever met someone that is a big bully? They intimidated you and maybe took your favorite toy as a kid, stole your boyfriend or girlfriend, or got that job you really wanted? I'm talking about the people who think that they're the baddest, coolest, person in the room and makes sure they get what they want and damn everyone else's feelings. The person when they come up in conversation makes you say, "I want to kill that (insert profanity here)!" Well this is something I've experienced too, and I've made it my goal to help all of us out by making it easier to get revenge on those who need it. My passion for making sure justice is done has led me to come up with this concept, one that I think will change all of us for the better.

I'm talking about creating the baddest, yet coolest, hitman service the world has ever seen. But this isn't just any ordinary hitman service, this is one that combines the stealth of nitjisu, with the surprise of the Unibomber.

My passion is starting the first American ninja for hire company.

My passion is having a shipping a ninja to your enemy...in a box.

That's right, for years I've thought what would be the best way to get revenge on someone, yet be so sly, there's no chance that anyone will trace it back to you. Who are the best at stealth? Ninjas of course. With their sleek all black outfits, soft slippers, and lack of guns; ninjas will kill you quieter than a mouse. Combine that with every one's love for packages in the mail, and you can't go wrong. I mean seriously, a big box shows up on your front door, and you're thinking "Oh look, someone sent me a pony in the mail!" You then race to bring the box inside, rip the packaging off like a six year old on Christmas Day, and before you know it...you're dead via a throwing star to your forehead. No time to call 911, no time to grab your sword to fight back, no time to even realize what just happened. Then like a black cat in the night, the ninja disappears and moves on to the next box.

Now it's not going to be cheap shipping humans through the mail, and I'm still trying to figure out if packaging peanuts or bubble wrap would be the better choice. Although one of the drawbacks to bubblewrap would the temptations of the ninja to pop the bubbles while waiting for his or her target. But I think that I'm on to something here. I think that there is a strong market for such a service. I think that after this whole political thing, I'm going to become a businessman and be the next Steve Jobs of the hitman industry. It's just going to take hard work, perseverance, and passion.

And ninjas in a box is something that I am definitely passionate about.